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How did Thomas Hobbesâs materialism explain the physical world?
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Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes, detail of an oil painting by John Michael Wright; in the National Portrait Gallery, London.
Thomas Hobbes was a mechanical materialist who posited that only material things are real, asserting that the entire universe is a corporeal system in constant movement. He explained the physical world by reducing all observed phenomena to the motion of matter.123
Within his systematic philosophy, Hobbes categorized the sciences based on these principles of motion:
- Geometry: Analyzes the motions of points, lines, and solids.1
- Mechanics: Examines the motions of three-dimensional bodies within a plenum.1
- Physics: Investigates the motions of inanimate bodies as they contribute to observable phenomena.13
- Psychology: Studies the internal motions of animate bodies and how physical actions affect the mind, such as passions and perturbations.13
Hobbes believed that all knowledge originates from sense experience, which he argued is caused by the physical impact of external bodies upon human sense organs. While he applied these mechanical principles to nature and psychology, he maintained that political understanding could also be derived from psychological principles illuminated by these general laws of motion.31